


In the Garden

by olivemartini



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Hurt, Pre-Relationship, injured Katie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 22:44:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4076614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Katie gets hurt during the battle against Kronos, she sneaks out of the infirmary.  Travis, worried about her and knowing that she needs to take it easy, goes to find her. And he knows exactly where the daughter of Demeter was heading.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Garden

"What are you doing?"   
The voice coming from behind her made Katie wince. It belonged to the most annoying, insufferable, beautiful, horrid, kind-hearted, wonderful boy she ever had the misfortune of meeting. Closing her eyes and digging her fingers into the warm dirt to steady herself, she listened to the sound of Travis' pounding feet coming towards her. "You're not supposed to be walking. Your side, it's like, going to bleed you out if you rip the stitches, Will said so. You're going to hurt yourself." She couldn't bring herself to respond to him, and the silence made him stop. "Katie? Are you alright?"  
"You could have died." Embarrassingly, her voice made it clear that she had been crying. "You could have died, and I would never have been able to talk to you again, and that's not okay."  
"You could have died too." He came around to face her, helping her sit back on the ground. "You almost did. which is why you should be in the infirmary right now."  
"It scared me." Even though it hurt, she pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in them so she didn't have to look at his face. She could feel his arm around her shoulders, warm and comforting, like he was afraid she was going to fall over. But since she was being hit with waves of dizziness every few minutes, it was a reasonable concern.  
"Almost dying would scare anybody, I imagine." He tugged on her arm again. "Let's go to the infirmary. You'll feel better lying down. How did you even walk down here?"  
"I don't like it there. It's crowded, and I don't like being by myself in the middle of the night. I'm used to having cabin mates." She took a deep breath, turning to face him. "And I wasn't talking about me. I meant you. I was scared that you could have died."  
"What?" He drew back from her, and she almost toppled over into the dirt.  
"You know my last words to you would have been I hate you?" She had taken a spade and started digging it into the dirt, intent on planting at least a row of flowers before she leaves. "We were in that stupid fight, you know, because you and Connor sneaked into my drawer to look at my underwear, and I had yelled I hate you. I remembered that halfway through the battle and almost went crazy trying to find you so I could make my last words something different."  
"That's insane. You're insane." He seemed to be truly baffled. "Katie, where are you going with this?"  
"All I'm saying is, do you know how awful I would have felt if my last words to you would have been I hate you?" She was crying now, and every breath hurt the wound in her side in the worst way. It was like she was being stabbed all over again. Travis was basically holding her in his lap, rocking her back and forth, trying to wiggle the spade out of her grip at the same time. "You do know I never meant it when I said I hate you, ever, no matter what you did, right? I never hated you. Never could."  
"I know. I know, Katie, I know." He was running his hand through her hair, and she became aware of the fact that she had gotten dirt all over him. His hands had calluses on them from sword practice, and she found it comforting that she had matching ones. "Do you know I was the one who caught you after you got stabbed, right before you hit the ground? I carried you back to Will, and you were whimpering the whole time. You were in so much pain that every step hurt you, but you kept saying one thing to me. My name. And saying I love you to me. Over and over. So I hate you wouldn't have been your last words to me if I had died."  
This didn't comfort her very much. "I was delirious."  
"Maybe." He shrugged, and she could hear the teasing in his voice. "But when you said my name, it almost sounded like it was a prayer, or the most beautiful thing you could think of. So I'll take it."  
"You were carrying me through a battle while I bled to death." She laughed, patting the dirt down over top of the seed. "Of course I would say your name."  
"You scared me too, though. And I guess you made a promise to yourself that you'd tell me you didn't hate me? Well, I made a promise, too." She was just about to ask him what it was when he leaned in and kissed her.   
Travis kissed her.  
Which was strange.  
But not.  
Strange, because even though she had thought about this, wanted this, she didn't think she'd every get the courage to actually do it. Not strange, because it was Travis, and she knew him like the back of her hand. Knew the chapped lips and long blonde hair and his chipped front tooth. Knew his taunting grin and kind eyes and the way he threw his arm around her shoulder when they were walking beside each other. Knew his "I just pranked you" face and how he looked when he fought with a sword. So it wasn't strange. It was perfect.  
When they broke apart, she knew that he sort of wanted to run away, but couldn't, because she needed help back to the infirmary. "Was that your promise?"  
"No." He looked at her from underneath his long hair, and she could have sworn he was blushing. "I love you. Have for years. That was the promise." He took her hand, holding it tight, like she might fly away if he didn't. "I wanted to tell you that, and I realized that there might come a day where I don't have that chance."  
"Well, in that case," She kissed him again, loving that she could do that now without worrying whether he'll think she's crazy. "I love you, too."


End file.
